$17.95

The FTDI cable is a USB to Serial (TTL level) converter which allows for a simple way to connect TTL interface devices to USB. The I/O pins of this FTDI cable are configured to operate at 5V.

The FTDI cable is designed around an FT232RQ, which is housed in a USB A connector. The other side of the cable is terminated with a 0.1" pitch, 6-pin connector with the following pinout: RTS, RX, TX, 5V, CTS, GND (RTS is the green cable and GND is black).

This cable has the same pinout and functionality as our FTDI Basic Breakout board; you can use it to program your Arduino Pro, Pro Mini and Lilypad. For use with those boards, align the black and green wires of the FTDI cable with the 'BLK' and 'GRN' labels on the PCB.

There are pros and cons to the FTDI Cable vs the FTDI Basic. The FTDI Basic has great LED indicators, but requires a Mini-B cable. The FTDI Cable is well protected against the elements, but is large and cannot be embedded into a project as easily. The FTDI Basic uses DTR to cause a hardware reset where the FTDI cable uses the RTS signal.

Connectors are a major source of confusion for people just beginning electronics. The number of different options, terms, and names of connectors can make selecting one, or finding the one you need, daunting. This article will help you get a jump on the world of connectors.

Took a while of frustrating debug to realize that my cable had a counterfeit FTDI chip in it; FTDI bricked it giving it a PID of 0000 but it still showed up in windows and spit out "NOT GENUINE DEVICE" or similar when receiving bytes over the UART.

If you're a radio enthusiast, I successfully programmed Yaesu, Icom, Wouxun, Puxing and Baofeng radios with this cable. Should work with Kenwoods and many cheap Chinese radios as well.
Works well as a C-IV control cable with Icom HF radios.
Add an optocoupler and it will work as PTT control with Ham Radio Deluxe, AGW Packet Engine and similar.
Email me if you want more info.

I just received the the FTDI 5V cable to use instead of the FTDI basic on a mini-B cable.

When switched from basic to cable got avrdude error msg "avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00". Had the error before when setting up the basic but was due to improper board setting in arduino IDE. Had selected "Arduino MIni with ATMega 328" when realized my board was Pro... further down in the list "Arduino Pro Mini 5V....".

Drivers were installed when plugged in cable (COM8 vs basic on COM 7). When connect cable to USB get power to Arduino but fails upload. Checked that black lead is on GND pin....any suggestions?

Yes and no. 3.3V Arduinos for the most part are not any different then their 5V versions with the exception of the voltage regulator and the speed (16MHz is not in spec for 3.3V so we use 8MHz). These boards will run just fine on 5V. But you are running them at 5V so make sure you don't have anything connected to the VCC line that can't handle 5V.

I found the VCC (red) and CTS (brown) wires swapped on the female header. I kept getting "USB port shut down due to too much power" warnings until I poured over the schematic and discovered the manufacturing defect. A quick swap, and it's good to go. Not a deal-breaker, but something to watch out for.

I've been looking for a cable that has the 6-pin flat connector at BOTH ends and I can't seem to find one on here or on Newark Canada... don't know what the issue is. I'll probably end up buying the connectors and the metal crimp inserts and making my own cable... seems like a lot of work. I mean, the PicKit needs a similar cable, why aren't they sold on here? Kinda crazy...

I bought one of these to use as an interface cable to my HF radio and it worked well until I damaged the cable. So I bought two more (for redundancy this time) and get this -- neither of my new builds will transmit to the radio at all. The damaged cable still works but I don't consider it reliable. However, since neither of my new cables work I am stuck with the old one. I compared the connections I made for my working cable to the new cables and verified they were wired the same.

So my only thought is that something changed in the build of the cables I just received. Maybe the wire color coding changed? Or the internal circuitry?

Sitting here in a funk as my only working cable is the "bad" one, after wasting $50 to build up a pair of new cables ($18/cable plus $8/connector) that don't work.

Does this work with windows 8? I have 3 little $3 USB to 3.3V TTL boards that no longer work as well as a USB to serial cable. These all use a Prolific chip that seems to be "obsolete" so I'm looking for a replacement.

Bought the cable, and I have been trying to get it to work with an "arduino" I made (I whipped up an ATMega328p with headers, reset switch, and 5v regulator), and I conected GND to GND, VCC to VCC, RXD on cable to TXD on ATMega, and then TXD on cable to RXD on ATMega, and finally RTS to reset, but when I try uploading, I see that it resets because my blink program starts again, but then in the Arduino IDE it fails with

If you don't need all the fancy flow control and stuff, you can make your own cable for about $3. I built one myself and I can vouch that it works. It's just a TxD/RxD/GnD. Here's the tutorial:
http://jethomson.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/diy-usb-to-serial-cable-for-3usd/

If anyone is having problems having this cable show up as a USB device and a com port, simply wiggle it around in all directions slowly and carefully. Once you get your computer to recognize it and have it install the drivers, you will be set for plug and play operations.

If you successfully get the drivers installed and it comes up as a com port and it disappears/reappears constantly, the cable may have a loose connection and you should contact technical support.

Just received and tried to use this cable with the Ethernet Pro Arduino (DEV-10536) but can't get any of three different Macs to recognize the cable. I've installed the most current drivers from FTDI but the computers never see it. I have an Arduino Mega that is recognized properly. The ethernet pro does turn on and run its OOB blink code, but sometimes will instead just turn on its led dimly and do nothing.
Thinking either the cable or the board is bad but not sure. Anyone run into this before?

This cable worked like a charm on my Cypress PSOC-5 evaluation board. Up and running in 1 min. Now able to send Rx and Tx commands like a champ.
To note: Rx relative on the "FTDI Cable Schematic", means the Tx on the micro controller. Tx on the "FTDI Cable Schematic" means Rx on the micro controller. (You probably know this, but I have had "fun" learning serial ports :))
Like mentioned below, I'm interested in seeing the cable being able to handle loads larger than 70mA. I have personally tested this cable to 70mA as well and will hopefully soon test it to higher values.

What is the maximum current this cable can supply through the 5V wire?
The schematic shows an inductor in series with VBUS which becomes 5V.
Maybe in the next revision, have another leg of VBUS that connects directly to 5V.

An initialized USB port can typically supply 0.5A@5V however some ports that are part of hubs or integrated into other devices source down to 100mA when initialized.
I also don't think the inductor inside the cable is 30ohms because I have used this cable to power devices that were drawing 70mA. At 70mA there would be a 2.1V drop across the inductor bringing the necessary 5V down to 2.9V, a little low for a 5V system. So the cable can certainly handle 70mA :)

The inductor on the schematic is most likely a ferrite bead and the 30 ohms is the impedance at a fairly high frequency like 100 MHz. The dc resistance is more likely 30-50 milliohms. Having said that, SparkFun should probably place a note on the schematic describing both the AC and DC resistances to better inform their customers.

Yeah.. I ordered 2 of the 5V boards about 3 days ago. This would have been even better since I plan on soldering some headers and long cables to it.
Cool product, but now I'm forced to find a reason to buy it (like everything else on this site)

Works fine!

Works well. No issues

Does what its supposed to when connected to the mega pro. Use to load sketches and receive serial data. Works just like a USB cable on a regular Arduino. I have the FTDI break out board also but prefer this cable for simplicity's sake.

Did the job!

It worked! I did have to go into Windows Control Panel-Device Manager, find the COM port and use the Advanced settings to change from COM11 to COM1 for my application, but otherwise, it worked without a hitch.

The link provided to the driver in the item description was especially helpful. I know buying a cheaper one can be risky, but these are priced high, so for my next one I bought it for less than half the cost of this one...we'll see how it goes.

Goodie

Easy

I am not a programmer or developer. I am a musician using eurorack modular equipment. I had some modules that needed firmware updates and this cable got the job done. The USB cable was a better choice for me over the basic breakout board because of convenience factor. With this and some jumpers cables I will be able to update any module that uses this method for updating.

FTDI Cable

I love these things!

I call these "magic cables". I buy them 5 at a time, and I'm up to at least 20 by now. I use PIC micro-controllers on wire-wrap boards for most of my projects. This cable provides two-way communications with the PC, and even powers the PIC. It works great with custom VB.NET apps, or PuTTy, a free terminal program. It even works reliably up to 2 MBaud through the Windows COM port interface! I dread the day when they are no longer available, hopefully many years from now.

This thing has been a pain since I bought it.

I needed a 5V TTL serial adaptor a few months ago. I decided I didn't want to gamble on a fake FTDI chip so I bought from Sparkfun. The application is an 8192 baud serial link for GM cars. Due to the odd baud rate, the only two chips that will work well are FTDI's FT232R series and the Silabs CP2102 series...and since it's standard TTL, that makes the FTDI the easiest solution.

Well, it's been an absolute nightmare to keep this thing working. One download, it's fine, the next, it's corrupting the firmware in the car's computer. Pull everything, put it on the bench, different wiring, different computer, different PC, same issues-sometimes it works, sometimes it's garbage. No rhyme or reason to it, I can't even get the thing to fail a loopback test-but you can't send data over it reliably. Even tried talking to the arduino with it, same results...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Missing RS232 Signals

This cable works fine if you are using the assembly in a 3-wire mode but if you need to use it in a full-handshake UART mode, this cable is missing critical signals. I'm not certain why the folks at Sparkfun just didn't bring out all the RS232 signals from the FTDI IC and let the user decide which to use.

Easiest to Use Development FTDI 5V Serial To Date

There was no special driver to install due to fake chipset. Contains the real thing chipset! Windows 10 recognized and setup the correct driver with no issue! Supplied sufficient power to Arduino Pro Mini 5V for proper operation.

Works great with 8052-BASIC MCU trainer I'm making.

I'm using this cable to interface with the serial terminal pins on a 8052-BASIC MCU (circa 1984) that I'm in the process of building into a trainer. I only need to use the Rx, Tx and ground ground pins. The FTDI USB drivers automatically installed as normal and it worked the first time and continues to work...

In 2003, CU student Nate Seidle fried a power supply in his dorm room and, in lieu of a way to order easy replacements, decided to start his own company. Since then, SparkFun has been committed to sustainably helping our world achieve electronics literacy from our headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.

No matter your vision, SparkFun's products and resources are designed to make the world of electronics more accessible. In addition to over 2,000 open source components and widgets, SparkFun offers curriculum, training and online tutorials designed to help demystify the wonderful world of embedded electronics. We're here to help you start something.